The why and how of developing web and mobile apps — first, the why (and just a teeny bit of how)

The numbers are more than impressive: 4.8 billion mobile handsets currently in use — and 19% of those are smartphones, up 2% from just last year.

Then there’s the Internet, which now claims some 2.2 billion users, 1.3 billion of whom access it via some sort of personal computer (desktop, laptop, ultrabook, netbook, tablet).

All this means that if you’re in business, you’re on the web — and if you haven’t begun to incorporate mobile devices into your business strategy, especially smartphones and tablets, odds are pretty high that you will soon.

Which brings us to the matter of developing applications for the web and for mobile environments.
Unless you can afford a good-sized stable of web and mobile app developers, your best bet to keep a 21st-century pace is to find yourself a services provider with expertise in these realms — expertise that runs both broad and deep. And affordable.

So, once again, I’m going to lay out what you’ll need to look for in a mobile and web app development services provider: